Connections
by ThnksFrThMmrs87
Summary: A series of One Shots about my favorite Glee couple, Rachel and Puck. All genres and many subjects.
1. Connections

Note From The Author- - So I've decided to put together this series of little one shots that didn't seem to flow as full stories. I did this for my second favorite show, CSI: NY, which used to hold the top spot before Glee. : ) I hope you enjoy.

Disclaimer—I don't own the characters of Glee

Rachel and Noah had a very strange relationship. Their brief dating life had been fraught with ridicule from others and consisted mostly of them making out and then barely listening to each other speak about things the other didn't care about.

But the bottom line was that whether they liked it or not, the two of them had a connection. Puck felt a strange need to protect her and to make sure that any guy she ended up with knew that they had dated, just in case they doubted that messing with her would be a bad idea.

Rachel felt oddly comfortable with him, particularly given their slushy history. Even when she was with someone else she couldn't seem to tamp down her attraction to him, and in her heart she truly believed that there was more to him than the bad boy that most people tended to see.

They kept coming back to each other, as friends and teammates, and always brushing up to romantic interests without acting on them. Which was why Noah was the one who found her crying in the choir room with her iPod headphones firmly in place and her eyes squeezed shut against the tears.

She and Finn had made a pretty good go of it after Regionals. They had stayed together through the summer and done pretty well through the beginning of the school year, but then things had gone downhill. They had started fighting, stopped wanting to sing together in Glee, and that day at rehearsal everything had devolved into a loud and explosive fight that had ended their relationship and sent Finn storming from the room.

After Mr. Schue had cancelled practice for the day, Rachel had stayed behind in the choir room. It had occurred to Puck that she hadn't left with the rest of them, so after he dropped his crap off in his car he went back, and that was when he found her.

Without saying a word, he walked up to her and pulled one of the headphones from her ears. He put it to his own as she looked up at him with startled tear filled brown eyes as he did. The song was one he knew fairly well, but hearing the words 'there's a fine, between love and a waste of your time' solidified for him just how heartbroken the girl really was over this; and for the first time he realized that maybe Rachel and Finn hadn't just been blowing smoke when they talked about the fact that they were each others' first loves.

That strange connection between them kicked in as those big eyes of hers locked on his, and before he knew it Puck was sitting on the chair next to her and pulling Rachel into his arms. For a moment she tensed, and then her body went limp as she began to sob into his shoulder. Her tiny hands fisted in his shirt and his hand moved soothingly over her back and hair as she let everything out.

Later on they would probably try to pretend that the time they spent there had never happened, but for the moment he would hold her, and she would let him; and that connection between them would give them both comfort.


	2. Won't Let You Go

Note From The Author—This is just a short little one-shot inspired by, of all things, the ending scene of Syfy Network's amazing Alice. Random, I know; but I couldn't seem to help myself.

Disclaimer—I don't own the characters, though I certainly wish I did

It had been a long time since the walls had closed in around Rachel Berry; probably all the way back to when her mother had rejected her after only days of being in contact. Now it was over a year later and five little words had brought them crushing in again. They were in a crash.

The words had sent her spiraling into a heart clenching and mind numbing panic. She couldn't speak, couldn't move; she could just repeat those words over and over again in her head.

She dimly registered the gasps, worried cries, and the arms around her body, but still she could do nothing. The words still pulsed though her brain, sounding in Mr. Schue's voice and winding through her vision like some sort of Technicolor nightmare. They. Were. In. A. Crash.

Hours passed, though they may as well have been days for her. She came to enough to realize that Kurt and Brittany had moved her onto the chairs and that she was now sitting with the two of them on either side of her.

The endless march of words finally ended, but Rachel found herself sliding even deeper; fear and regret and consuming her every thought. They had been dancing around each other ever since she and Finn had broken up, and she had never told him how she really felt. Now they didn't know what was going on or if they were hurt and there was a chance she'd never get to say the things that had once seemed so terrifying but now seemed as essential as breathing.

Three hours after that initial call another came. This time it took longer for the words to sink in, and when they finally did it was accompanied by a hard shake from Kurt.

"Rachel, they're here. They're in the parking lot."

Her heart leaped. Surely if they were here that meant they were okay, didn't it? She didn't give herself much of a chance to think about it, just got to her feet and started running. She was halfway down the hall before it registered that Quinn and Kurt were next to her, the three of them linked as they sprinted towards the doors that would take them to their friends.

They pushed through the front doors, and there they were; Finn, Puck and Mercedes were a bit scraped up from the looks of it, and there were a couple of bandages and casts between the two of them, but they were okay. They were standing there blissfully alive and whole.

Kurt was the first to break from the group, running straight for his best friend. Rachel watched as he wrapped her up in a hug and Quinn joined the love fest. She squeezed Mercedes hard and started to cry before turning her attention to Finn and throwing herself into his arms.

Noah turned from the tear fest then and he saw her. His eyes found hers and lit up with this almost sublime light that had them glowing green and with a sob caught in her throat Rachel found herself running as fast as she could towards him. As soon as she was close enough she launched herself into his arms, her legs wrapping around his waist and pulling him as close as she could as she pressed a fierce kiss to his mouth.

"You're okay, you're okay," she whispered brokenly as she moved her mouth from his to pepper kisses over ever cut and scrape she could see.

"I'm okay," he affirmed, burying a hand in her hair and keeping the other wrapped around her waist as she seemingly assured himself of his presence.

Her mouth found his again and this time the kiss rode out from a frenzied tangle to a slow, gliding burn. "I never told you that I wanted you, that I needed you; and then today I kept thinking what if I never got to …"

Puck silenced her with another searing kiss. "I'm here, you got to, and I'm sorry I never said the same things." Their eyes met for a long moment, and he reached up to wipe the tears from hers. "I'm not going anywhere."

She could only nod as a choked sob escaped and she pressed herself into the crook of her neck.

Standing there, bruised and battered from a car crash that never should have happened and with this amazing, emotional girl wrapped around him and creeping into his heart, Noah knew he wouldn't be letting go of her for a very long time.


	3. Friends?

Note From the Author—Set after Audition, and with a not so veiled Buffy reference.

Disclaimer—I do not own the Glee characters

Rachel hated apologizing; not necessarily the act itself, but the fact that her need to apologize meant that she had done something yet again to enrage her peers. Sending Sunshine to a crack house had been a bad idea, but all that had been in her head was the thought of self preservation. There couldn't be another tiny powerhouse in New Directions. If there was Rachel's existence would cease to have meaning. Okay so she had been exaggerating, but she didn't think she could handle any more competition.

The whole situation made this the hardest apology of all, and when she finished her speech and everyone began to take off, she couldn't help but feel that it still wasn't enough. Mercedes and Kurt were still pissed at what she had done, Tina and Mike were feeling a bit sore as well, and Finn was so wrapped up in the unhappiness of losing his leading man status that he bid her an absentminded goodbye and left her alone in the rehearsal room.

A tired sigh echoed through the empty room as she sat there alone. The entire scene had been too close for comfort to the whole 'Run, Joey, Run' video incident, and the thought of everything stupid she'd done since starting with Glee was plaguing her. When she heard footsteps as someone re-entered the room she expected it to be Mr. Schue checking on her; what she didn't expect was to see Puck leaning casually against the door jamb.

"Moping, Berry?" he questioned with a little smirk.

"What does it matter if I am, Noah?" She emphasized the last word, absurdly feeling like it was imperative to remind him that she was the only one in Glee privileged enough to call him that.

He pushed away from the door and crossed the room, spinning a chair to straddle it backwards next to her. "Because, you shouldn't be. You were just trying to protect what's yours."

Rachel shook her head. "Noah, you do realize that the fact that what I did is okay with you would make most people cringe, right?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm the big bad. Either way you wanted what we all want but most people are afraid to act on. Like that was some seriously awesome shit Berry, and it's not like she ended up catching something or anything."

She wanted to laugh so badly just because his moral compass was so absurdly pointed, but she knew that what she had done was dangerous and cruel. "I don't think she would agree with you."

Puck nudged her with his shoulder. "Shit Berry, I was joking. Even I wouldn't have done that. I was just trying to make you feel better."

"Why?" she questioned, big brown eyes gazing up at him in confusion.

"You've always been right about us, Rach. In a lot of ways we're actually a lot alike. I'm the bad boy that always ends up in second place and you're the demanding diva who can't seem to get off of people's nerves. We're dealing with the same shit half the time, and we're friends."

Even knowing that she was with Finn, she felt her heart soar when Noah admitted they were friends. Damned if she hadn't missed him. "We're friends?"

She asked so quietly and hesitantly that it made him feel like a douche for making her feel unsure about it. "Yeah, were friends," he told her with a shrug that didn't quite make it to casual. "I mean hell, I've had my hands on your ass, we'd better be friends."

That time she did laugh, out loud and long. "Noah, you are such a strange boy." She knew it was taking a chance given that she was with Finn and he was still hung up on Quinn and anyone could walk in, Rachel took that offer of friendship to the next level and leaned against him, her head resting on his shoulder. "Thank you."

Puck had stiffened for just a moment, having a flashback to Finn's fist plowing repeatedly into his face, but something about her just made him relax into it. "For what?" he questioned when her thanks finally registered.

"For coming back in here; for making me feel better."

"And for being a stud?"

Rachel grinned and let herself nuzzle in a little closer. "Yes, Noah; for being a stud too."


End file.
